Solar storm

Solar flare sets off auroras around the Arctic Circle

Web edition : 5:03 pm

Earth?s nearest star erupted late on January 22, belching out a solar flare. At the same time the sun launched a blast of hot gas known as a coronal mass ejection toward Earth.

A day later, when the particles slammed into the atmosphere, they set off auroras around the Arctic Circle. Fast-moving protons that came along for the ride also triggered a solar radiation storm, the biggest seen since the ?Halloween storms? of October 2003.

Scientists expect such powerful solar blasts to become more common as the sun moves toward a predicted peak of activity in 2013.

Found in: Astronomy and Atom & Cosmos

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338026/title/Solar_storm

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Iran vows to stop "some" oil sales as inspectors visit (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions, vowing to stop oil exports soon to "some" countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to crude sales to the European Union.

The Islamic Republic declared itself optimistic about a visit by U.N. nuclear experts that began Sunday but also warned the inspectors to be "professional" or see Tehran reducing cooperation with the world body on atomic matters.

Lawmakers have raised the possibility of turning the tables on the EU which will implement its own embargo on Iranian oil by July as it tightens sanctions on Tehran over the nuclear program.

But India, the world's fourth-largest oil consumer, said it would not take steps to cut petroleum imports from Iran despite U.S. and European sanctions against Tehran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection delegation will try to advance efforts to resolve a row about the nuclear work which Iran says is purely civilian but the West suspects is aimed at seeking a nuclear weapon.

Tension with the West rose this month when Washington and the EU imposed the toughest sanctions yet in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear program. The measures take direct aim at the ability of OPEC's second biggest Oil exporter to sell its crude.

In a remark suggesting Iran would fight sanctions with sanctions, Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would soon stop exporting crude to "some" countries.

Rostam Qasemi did not identify the countries but was speaking less than a week after the EU's 27 member states agreed to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1.

"Soon we will cut exporting oil to some countries," the state news agency IRNA quoted Qasemi as saying.

India, a major customer for Iranian crude, made clear it would not join the wider international efforts to put pressure on Tehran by cutting oil purchases.

"It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports from Iran drastically, because among the countries which can provide the requirement of the emerging economies, Iran is an important country amongst them," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on a visit to the Unites States.

The United States wants buyers in Asia, Iran's biggest oil market, to cut imports to put further pressure on Tehran.

DISCUSSION POSTPONED

Iranian lawmakers had been due to debate a bill Sunday that could have cut off oil supplies to the EU in days, in a move calculated to hit ailing European economies before the EU-wide ban on took effect.

But Iranian MPs postponed discussing the measure.

"No such draft bill has yet been drawn up and nothing has been submitted to the parliament. What exists is a notion by the deputies which is being seriously pursued to bring it to a conclusive end," Emad Hosseini, spokesman for parliament's Energy Committee, told Mehr news agency.

Iranian officials say sanctions have had no impact on the country. "Iranian oil has its own market, even if we cut our exports to Europe," Oil Minister Qasemi said.

Another lawmaker said the bill would oblige the government to cut Iran's oil supplies to the EU for five to 15 years, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

By turning the sanctions back on the EU, lawmakers hope to deny the bloc a six-month window it had planned to give those of its members most dependent on Iranian oil - including some of the most economically fragile in southern Europe - to adapt.

NUCLEAR WATCHDOG

Before departing from Vienna, IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts said he hoped Iran would tackle the watchdog's concerns "regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program."

Mehr quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying during a trip to Ethiopia: "We are very optimistic about the outcome of the IAEA delegation's visit to Iran ... Their questions will be answered during this visit."

"We have nothing to hide and Iran has no clandestine (nuclear) activities."

Striking a sterner tone, Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned the IAEA team to carry out a "logical, professional and technical" job or suffer the consequences.

"This visit is a test for the IAEA. The route for further cooperation will be open if the team carries out its duties professionally," said Larijani, state media reported.

"Otherwise, if the IAEA turns into a tool (for major powers to pressure Iran), then Iran will have no choice but to consider a new framework in its ties with the agency."

Iran's parliament has approved bills in the past to oblige the government to review its level of cooperation with the IAEA. However, Iran's top officials have always underlined the importance of preserving ties with the watchdog body.

The head of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said late Saturday that the export embargo would hit European refiners, such as Italy's Eni, that are owed oil from Iran as part of long-standing buy-back contracts under which they take payment for past oilfield projects in crude.

The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011. However, analysts say the global oil market will not be overly disrupted if parliament votes for the bill that would turn off the oil tap for Europe.

Potentially more disruptive to the world oil market and global security is the risk of Iran's standoff with the West escalating into military conflict.

Iran has repeatedly said it could close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if sanctions succeed in preventing it from exporting crude, a move Washington said it would not tolerate.

(Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari, Robin Pomeroy and Hossein Jaseb in Tehran, Svetlana Kovalyova in Milan and Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Writing by Parisa Hafezi and Robin Pomeroy; Editing by William Maclean and David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/wl_nm/us_iran

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[OOC] A Demon and it's Master

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James, Heat escape with 97-93 win over Bulls (AP)

MIAMI ? LeBron James scored 35 points, while reigning NBA MVP Derrick Rose wasted two chances in the final 23 seconds and the Miami Heat escaped with a 97-93 win Sunday over the Chicago Bulls.

Chris Bosh scored 24 points and added 12 rebounds for the Heat, who never trailed ? but this win in a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference finals was not easy. Dwyane Wade added 15 points for Miami.

Rose scored 34 points for Chicago, but missed a pair of foul shots that would have given Chicago the lead with 22.7 seconds left. He had made all 29 of his free throws in the fourth quarter this season.

And Rose had a shot to tie in the final seconds, but his short jumper bounced off the rim.

Bosh sealed it with two free throws with 0.1 seconds left for Miami, which has now won five straight over the Bulls ? counting the last four games of last season's East title series.

Both sides said this game was supposed to be just another regular-season matchup, one without extra meaning.

So not true.

The Bulls erased what was a 12-point deficit and tied the game at 84 on a brilliant layup by Rose with 6:55 left. The Heat answered with a 10-2 run, before Rose's three-point play with 49.1 seconds left cut the lead to 94-93.

Rose then lost the ball on a drive, but drew contact from Miami's Udonis Haslem and went to the line with Chicago down one with 22.7 seconds left. Rose's first hit the front of the rim and bounced away, and his second rimmed out. James grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Joakim Noah ? only to miss both free throws himself.

After the second miss, Bosh appeared to emerge with the rebound, but an inadvertent whistle led to a jump ball. James outleaped Taj Gibson, getting the ball to Mario Chalmers, who made one free throw for a two-point lead.

Chicago wound up getting one last chance with 9.9 seconds left, calling time-out. Naturally, it went to Rose, who weaved his way into the lane ? but came up short. Bosh got the rebound, and Miami began celebrating.

Rip Hamilton and Noah each scored 11 for Chicago, which got 10 apiece from Ronnie Brewer and Carlos Boozer.

The Bulls played without forward Luol Deng and guard C.J. Watson, both sidelined with wrist injuries. Watson may be back in Chicago's lineup as early as Monday, and Deng ? who has a torn ligament in his left, non-shooting, wrist ? is "very close" to a return, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said.

Miami took an 11-point lead early in the fourth on back-to-back 3-pointers from Shane Battier and James. The Bulls roared back, as they did for most of the day whenever the Heat seemed on the cusp of taking control.

They just never got the lead, despite Rose's best efforts.

"Two sick moves by D-Rose," Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant tweeted as he watched the game, marveling at two layups by Rose that knotted the game at 84.

Insistence that this was "just another game" notwithstanding, Miami started quickly. Wade appeared a bit more emotionally charged than usual after joining his teammates in the pregame huddle, and the Heat ran out to a fast early edge.

Maybe it would be more accurate to say they "jumped" out to that lead.

Wade set James up for three dunks in the first 7 minutes, the last of which is probably going to be replayed for quite a while. James appeared to be forgotten as he hovered on the weak side of the floor, so he darted toward the basket. Wade tossed a lob his way ? and the two-time MVP leapfrogged the 5-foot-11 John Lucas for a dunk that put Miami up 16-7.

Even the NBA took notice of that one: Within minutes, replays of the James dunk were sent out on the league's Twitter feed.

Chicago quickly settled down, getting within 24-22 at the end of the first quarter. But Miami scored 11 straight early in the second, the last seven of those coming with Wade and James both on the bench, to open a 35-24 edge. Wade's first points came with 6:14 left in the half, two free throws that gave Miami what was its biggest lead at 42-30.

The Bulls chipped away again, and by halftime Miami's edge was only 56-51.

Wade missed eight of nine shots in the first half and an airball dropped him to 1 for 10 early in the third quarter.

Chicago had a chance for its first lead when Rose attacked the rim moments later. But his layup was blocked by Joel Anthony, and James threw about a 65-foot pass to Wade for a dunk. James found Wade again for another transition slam less than a minute later for a 63-58 advantage.

The lead was still five entering the fourth. James made a 20-footer over Brewer with 0.2 left in the third to push Miami's edge to 76-71.

Notes: James had a large icepack strapped to his right shoulder during a first-half stint of rest. He was grabbing at the shoulder in pain early in the first quarter after a collision, but did not appear to have a serious issue. ... Boozer said he needed more than 20 tickets for the game. He's been spending part of his offseasons in Miami for several years.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_sp_bk_ga_su/bkn_bulls_heat

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Founder Soup: Stanford and Andreessen?s New Startup Generator

A single entrepreneur alone is vulnerable to shortsightedness, to fatigue. But with a team comes diverse perspective, encouragement, and the wherewithal to push through problems. That's why a group of Stanford computer science and business students started the Andreessen Horowitz-backed Founder Soup program. It's designed to give entrepreneurs with an idea or a fledgling company a chance to pitch, not to raise funding but to recruit co-founders. At its first full-scale event on Thursday night I saw an effective model for fostering startups, and several brilliant ideas in health tech and energy (reviewed here) that could turn into successful companies.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eImjvmvIths/

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Video: New Quantum Dot Tech Could Boost Current Optical Fiber Band Tenfold

Link Information - Click to View

Video: New Quantum Dot Tech Could Boost Current Optical Fiber Band Tenfold
Current optical communications schemes rely on a narrow 1.55 micron wavelength band of about 10 terahertz, a band in which optical signals can be well controlled and loss of signal/data is fairly low. But to open up optical networks to the high data load of the future, we need to open up the span of available wavelength.

Source: POPSCI
Posted on: Friday, Jan 27, 2012, 8:55am
Views: 14

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117146/Video__New_Quantum_Dot_Tech_Could_Boost_Current_Optical_Fiber_Band_Tenfold

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Jumping Spiders see clearly by blurring their vision

Researchers in Japan have now discovered that the arachnids accurately sense distances by comparing a blurry version of an image with a clear one, a method called image defocus.

Jumping spiders, which hunt by pouncing on their prey, gauge distances to their unsuspecting meals in a way that appears to be unique in the animal kingdom, a new study finds.

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The superability boils down to seeing green, the researchers found.

There are several different visual systems that organisms use to accurately and reliably judge distance and depth. Humans, for example, have binocular stereovision. Because?our eyes?are spaced apart, they receive visual information from different angles, which our brains use to automatically triangulate distances. Other animals, such as insects, adjust the focal length of the lenses in their eyes, or move their heads side to side to create an effect called motion parallax ? nearer objects will move across their field of vision more quickly than objects farther away.

However,?jumping spiders?(Hasarius adansoni) lack any kind of focal adjustment system, have eyes that are too close together for binocular stereovision and don?t appear to use motion parallax while hunting. So how are these creatures able to perceive depth?

Researchers in Japan have now discovered that the arachnids accurately sense distances by comparing a blurry version of an image with a clear one, a method called image defocus.

Jumping spiders have four eyes densely packed in a row: two large principal eyes and two small lateral eyes. The spider uses its lateral eyes to sense the motion of an object, such as a fly, which it then zeros in on using its principal eyes, Akihisa Terakita, a biologist at Osaka City University in Japan and lead author of the new study, explained in an email to LiveScience.

Rather than having a single layer of?photoreceptor cells, the retinas in the spider?s principal eyes have four distinct photoreceptor layers. When Terakita and his colleagues took a close look at the spider's principal eyes, they found that the two layers closest to the surface contain ultraviolet-sensitive pigments, whereas the deeper layers contain green-sensitive pigments.

However, because of the layers' respective distances from the lens of the eye, incoming green light is only focused on the deepest layer, while the other green-sensitive retinal layer receives defocused or fuzzy images. The researchers hypothesized that the spiders gauge depth cues from the amount of defocus in this fuzzy layer, which is proportional to the distance an object is to the lens of the eye.

To test this, they placed a spider and three to six?fruit flies?in a cylindrical plastic chamber, housed in a white styrene foam box. They then bathed the bugs in different colored lights: If the defocus of green light is important to the spiders, then they should not be able to accurately judge jumping distance in the absence of green light.

Sure enough, the spiders could easily catch the flies under green light, but consistently underestimated their jumps under red light (which doesn't contain shorter-wavelength light, such as green and blue). The researchers suggest that green light is just right to produce the image defocus necessary to gauge distances, unlike other wavelengths of light.

The team doesn?t know if any other animals employ similar depth-perception techniques, though they think the findings could have important implications for the future design of?visual systems in robots.

"Further investigation of the optics, retinal structure and neural basis of depth perception in jumping spiders may provide biological inspiration for computer vision as well," they write in their study, published in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal Science.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/aC8TqWrXnqg/Jumping-Spiders-see-clearly-by-blurring-their-vision

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Romney puts Gingrich on defensive in Florida debate (Reuters)

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) ? Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took the fight to chief rival Newt Gingrich on Thursday in his most aggressive debate performance yet, five days ahead of Florida's primary vote.

A neck-and-neck race for Florida and its importance for the Republican presidential nomination made for a combustible atmosphere at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville as the candidates sparred repeatedly.

Gingrich, who has displayed a mastery of debating skills during previous debates, was frequently caught flat-footed under attack from Romney who went after his chief rival in an attempt to put his campaign back on track after losing South Carolina last Saturday.

Gingrich and Romney are running close in polls before next Tuesday's primary vote in Florida, the biggest state so far in the early voting for the Republican nomination to face President Barack Obama in November. The most recent polls put Romney ahead.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, took umbrage at Gingrich's description of him as "anti-immigrant."

"That's inexcusable," Romney said, turning to his rival. "I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. ... The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don't use a term like that."

Gingrich, who has offered a softer version of immigration policy than most Republican conservatives, insisted the United States could not rationally deport millions of people and that some who had lived here for decades should be allowed to stay.

But he added some confusion to his position by saying he would support some version of "self-deportation," the very issue he has criticized Romney for supporting.

"Newt needed a big night to turn around the momentum and he didn't get it. He struck me as tired and too ticked for his own good," wrote conservative columnist Rich Lowry on the National Review's website. His blog post was titled "Newt's worst night."

GINGRICH ATTACK FELL FLAT

Gingrich has enjoyed support from rock-ribbed conservatives in debate audiences by attacking debate moderators.

But this time, his effort to chastise CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer over a question about Romney's tax disclosures fell flat when Blitzer stood his ground and insisted Gingrich explain a comment he made in a TV interview that Romney "lives in a world of Swiss bank and Cayman Island bank accounts.

Gingrich did draw attention to Romney's vast wealth, which was put under the microscope this week when the former private equity executive release two years of tax documents.

"I don't know of any American president who has had a Swiss bank account. I'd be glad for you to explain that sort of thing," he said.

But Gingrich was ridiculed by Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul for telling laid-off space workers near Cape Canaveral on Wednesday that if elected president next November he would seek to build a permanent colony on the lunar surface.

It was the kind of claim that supports criticism that Gingrich has grandiose yet far-fetched ideas.

Romney said the money could be better spent elsewhere, that Gingrich's proposal was a big idea but not a good one. Paul, a Texas congressman and libertarian, got off the zinger of the night.

"I don't think we should go to the moon," said Paul. "I think maybe we should send some politicians up there."

Bickering erupted from the first question over illegal immigration, and intensified over Gingrich's past work for the troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Romney raised Gingrich's work for Freddie Mac as a sign that his rival was an influence peddler, a "horn tooter" for Freddie Mac. Romney has attacked Gingrich all week for accepting $1.6 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac.

Gingrich fought back. "Romney made $1 million dollars on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," he said, an attack that fell flat when Romney pointed out that Gingrich owns stock in the two government-sponsored entities at the heart of the U.S. housing crisis.

The candidates, asked which of their wives would make the best first lady of the White House, chose their own, except for Gingrich, who said they would all be terrific, including his wife, Callista.

"I would rather just talk about why I like Callista, and why I'd like her to be first lady, but she's not necessarily in any way better. These are wonderful people, and they would be wonderful first ladies," he said.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/ts_nm/us_usa_campaign_debate

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The big lessons from celebrity estate wars (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Philanthropist Brooke Astor. The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. There are a few celebrities who, in death, at least in certain circles, have become as known for the litigation over their estates as for how they lived their lives. While the dollars are mind-boggling in these cases, anyone thinking about wealth transfer faces the same issues: dysfunctional families, potentially unequal positions in the family business, perhaps multiple marriages with kids from each.

We spoke with Russell Fishkind, an estate attorney and a partner in the East Coast law firm of Saul Ewing and author of "Probate Wars of the Rich and Famous: An Insider's Guide to Estate Planning and Probate Litigation," about what regular folks can learn from these high-profile estate battles.

Q: What's the most common scenario you see?

A: Hands down, most common was a second marriage, or third marriage, with children from multiple marriages. If the estate plan does not adequately provide for Spouse No. 2 and for the children from the first marriage in a way that tries to achieve equality, you're basically buying a litigation case. The two most notable celebrities were Anna Nicole Smith, who at 26 married an 89-year-old billionaire, and Jerry Garcia, who had numerous children with different women, and then, just before he died, married Wife No. 3. The first turned into the longest estate litigation case we've seen in 100 years. The second led to litigation over custom guitars, Cherry Garcia ice cream and Jerry Garcia ties.

Q: What's happens if the family is in business together?

A: A huge amount of our wealth is from family business owners, and often mom or dad runs the business, and one or two children are in it, and one or two children are not. If I'm a dentist in California, should I not get a share of the business? Or what if the son in the business gets gifted the business? There are a lot of emotional ticking time bombs in family businesses that create litigation. The most shining example of that would be the Koch brothers, who had the largest family-owned business in the United States, and feuded for decades.

Q: In the case of Brooke Astor, there was fraud. Does that happen much?

A: I see a lot of these cases. When mom is alone and weak, and one child starts caring for her, somewhere along the line they start thinking they are entitled to more than their fair share. So the person will go to UBS or Morgan Stanley, and say, 'Mom wants to change title from her to me because I'll be dealing with this day-to-day, and I'm paying for her care, and she wants me to watch her portfolio.' Invariably, what gets left out of the conversation is that because these are now jointly-titled assets, they will pass to that child, and that is also the intent of the antagonist. The titling of accounts trumps the terms of the will.

Q: So you could have a very good will, and it will end up being meaningless?

A: Correct. I can give you an example where there's no glitz and no glamour. I handled a case involving a guy who never had any money, but was an inventor, and when he was 76, his invention hit, the company went public, and he was worth $50 million. The wife had the account retitled for his name and her name. When he died, the kids thought they were going to get the motherlode, but everything went to the wife.

Q: Is litigation over estates going up?

A: There's not a doubt in my mind that it is. I've asked surrogate judges informally in chambers, and they all say the same thing. The incidence of probate litigation is on the rise, and the fact patterns are consistent.

Q: What would you do to avoid these situations?

A: If there's a second spouse, make sure to give that spouse what was bargained for in the (prenuptial agreement). Where there is a likelihood of dissension, appoint an independent fiduciary or trustee. And for the family business, you really want to document your intentions so that if you are giving an interest to one child, and not to the other three, there is no mystery. If you are appointing one child to be CEO, write it down and explain it to everyone. Don't leave it to chance, or to petitions filed in court.

Q: The cases you point to entail significant amounts of money. What about for folks with smaller estates, who won't be affected by any estate-tax issues, and so might not have planned as carefully?

A: This is not just about the money. It's about who's living in the house? Where's mom's engagement ring? Where are her photo albums? This is not just something for millionaires. It is day-in and day-out, Main Street-type stuff. It's not unusual nowadays for a grown child to be living with mom and dad. If the second spouse dies, and the kid's still living in the house, the other siblings may battle because the house is worth $300,000. It's not so much about the money, but that the situation is bad. It would be better to have a will that says, the house is valued at $300,000, and the son who is living in it gets it, but he has to take out a mortgage and give the other siblings $150,000. You need to address it. These issues are not unique to people having money. They are common issues.

(Editing by Beth Pinsker Gladstone and Jan Paschal)

(The author is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are her own.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/en_nm/us_taxes_estatewars

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Facebook forces Timeline; tips to hide users' past (AP)

NEW YORK ? Facebook will start requiring people to switch to a new profile format known as Timeline, making photos, links and personal musings from the past much easier to find.

Timeline is essentially a scrapbook of your whole life on Facebook, compared with a snapshot of you today found on Facebook's traditional profile page. Once activated, Timeline replaces the current profile.

Although some people have already voluntarily switched to Timeline, Facebook hadn't made that mandatory. Beginning Tuesday, Facebook is telling some users that they have seven days to clean up their profiles before Timeline gets automatically activated. Facebook is rolling out the requirement to others over the next few weeks.

At some point, even those who haven't logged on to Facebook in a while will be automatically switched.

Timeline doesn't expose anything that wasn't available for sharing in the past. Many of those older posts had always been available. People could get to them by continually hitting "Older Posts," although most wouldn't have bothered. Timeline allows people to jump to the older material more quickly.

Timeline also doesn't necessarily reflect the fact that your circle of friends has likely expanded in recent years. A party photo you posted in 2008 to a small group of friends would be more visible to relatives, bosses and others you may have added as friends since then.

You'll have a week to curate the Timeline by moving stuff around, hiding photos or featuring them more prominently on your page.

Some things to consider:

? You can change privacy settings on individual items to control who has access. You might want to narrow embarrassing photos to your closest friends or delete some posts completely, or at least hide them so only you can see them.

? You can change the date on a post. For example, if you took a few months to post photos from a trip to Portugal, you can move them to appear with other posts from the time you took that trip. You can also add where you were, retroactively using a location feature that Facebook hadn't offered until recently.

? For major events in your life, you can click on a star to feature them more prominently. You can hide the posts you'd rather not showcase.

? Besides your traditional profile photo ? your headshot ? you can add what Facebook calls a cover photo. It's the image that will splash across the top and can be a dog, a hobby or anything else that reflects who you are. Keep in mind the dimensions are more like a movie screen than a traditional photo, so a close-up portrait of your face won't work well, but one of you lying horizontally will. But you don't even have to be in it.

? You can add things before you joined Facebook, back to when you were born. Life events can include when you broke your arm and whom you were with then, or when you spoke your first word or got a tattoo. You can add photos from childhood or high school as well.

? If you feel overwhelmed with so many posts to go through, start with your older ones. Those are the ones you'd need to be most careful about because you had reason to believe only a few friends would see them.

? Click on Activity Log to see all of your posts at a glance and make changes to them one by one. Open Facebook in a new browser tab first, though. That way, you can have one tab for the log and the other for the main Timeline.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_facebook_timeline

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4 dead after landslide hits Papua New Guinea (AP)

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea ? Rescuers were pulling bodies from the debris of a landslide that struck mountainous central Papua New Guinea, a disaster official said Wednesday. Local news media reported that as many as 60 people were dead or missing.

At least four bodies had been recovered by Wednesday evening, though the full extent of the damage to villages hit by Tuesday's landslide was not immediately known, said Martin Mose, the director of the South Pacific island nation's National Disaster Center.

"We are expecting more (bodies)," Mose said. "I am unwilling to put a number on that until I get confirmation from my team."

The National newspaper reported that 40 bodies had been recovered and 20 people were still missing following the landslide in the central town of Mendi.

The landslide carved a 1-mile (1.5 kilometer) trail of destruction across the remote landscape, Mose said, leaving roads to the villages cut off.

Photos from the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier showed scores of villagers searching a gigantic mound of dirt for survivors and victims.

Local lawmaker Francis Potape told Radio Australia's indigenous language service that the landslide completely covered two villages while people slept.

"There are people buried underneath and a number of them are, from what I have heard, children," The National quoted Potape as saying.

Three National Disaster Center officials and a police specialist dog unit flew to Mendi on Wednesday to join police at the disaster site.

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill also flew to the site to assess the damage on Wednesday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_as/as_papua_new_guinea_landslide

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How the new Facebook Timeline will affect your mobile experience (Appolicious)

If you haven?t turned your Facebook profile over to the new Timeline setup the company has been slowly rolling out for about a month, your time has just about run out. Timeline is coming to your profile, be it online or on your iPhone or iPad.

As AllThingsD reports, Facebook is pushing the Timeline update to all user profiles, which will rearrange Facebook posts in such a way that you?ll be able to see older posts and items, rather than just having them fall off your Facebook profile forever. The update to Facebook has slowly come online for some users and has been somewhat available in Facebook?s iPhone and iPad apps, but ?over the next few weeks,? Timeline will show up for everyone, accompanied by a warning of the change-over.

What?s important to note about Timeline is that when users start seeing the warning pop up in their web browsers and iOS apps, they?ll have entered the point of no return ? Facebook is pushing the update to everyone, and if there?s anything on your Timeline you don?t want to be there, you?ll need to get rid of it in a week-long grace period.

During that approval process, it?s possible to mess with your Facebook timeline on your iPad or iPhone in order to add or remove things from the public sphere, but it?s more difficult than if you did it on your computer?s web browser. Hiding posts on your timeline in the Facebook iOS app or with the mobile version of Facebook?s website, m.facebook.com, can be done by swiping the entry you want to change. Once you swipe a status update or photo, for example, an ?x? appears in the top right corner of that entry. Tapping the ?x? lets you either hide the post from the timeline or delete it. This allows you to keep full tabs on what about you people are seeing, even when you?re not at your computer.

One of the only other capabilities available to browser-based Facebook users but not those working from an iPhone is the Activity Log, a new tool that Facebook just released that allows users to see everything they do on Facebook. It?s a fast and easy way to be sure that things you?re doing on Facebook are set to the privacy you want them to be. The Activity Log is only visible to you, but you won?t be able to access it via the iPhone mobile site or app.

The good news is that Facebook seems to have done a lot to make sure the mobile versions of the social network support the new features pretty well. You can add your ?cover? picture easily from your iPhone?s camera roll, for example, right within the Facebook app. It?s little things like this, and the ease and speed of Facebook?s mobile privacy controls, that should help make the transition to Timeline a fairly painless one.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10855_how_the_new_facebook_timeline_will_affect_your_mobile_experience/44288555/SIG=13hfq2e5s/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10855-how-the-new-facebook-timeline-will-affect-your-mobile-experience

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Stung by defeat, Romney ready to right tax "mistake" (Reuters)

Columbia, South Carolina (Reuters) ? Humbled by a stunning loss in South Carolina, Mitt Romney said on Sunday he would release this week the tax returns demanded by rivals in his bid to regain the upperhand in the volatile Republican presidential race.

Romney, the longtime frontrunner in the Republican race and one of the wealthiest presidential candidates in history, lost to a resurrected Newt Gingrich in the conservative southern state on Saturday after stumbling badly in debates with clumsy responses to demands that he disclose his tax history.

Trying to recapture his footing as the contest heads to more populous and more moderate Florida, Romney said he would release his 2010 returns and an estimate for 2011 on Tuesday.

"We made a mistake holding off as long as we did and it just was a distraction," Romney said on "Fox News Sunday."

Romney said the returns would be on the Internet and emphasized he was releasing two years of returns after Gingrich posted 2010 taxes on Thursday.

His announcement was meant to draw a line under a bad week punctuated by his own missteps, a surprising turn in an otherwise tightly scripted campaign.

In the midst of a halting response to the tax return controversy, Romney said he paid a tax rate of around 15 percent, low compared to many American wage earners but in line with what wealthy individuals pay on income that largely comes from investments.

Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives with a sharp tongue that played well in debates, pounced on Romney's weak flank and walloped the former Massachusetts governor by 40 percent to 28 percent in South Carolina.

The Gingrich win reshaped the Republican race and reflected a party that is sharply divided over how to beat Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.

Florida, which votes on the Republican candidates January 31, could be decisive in ending or prolonging that division, although South Carolina suggested the nomination will not be sewn up so soon.

There have been three nominating contests so far and Gingrich, Romney and former senator Rick Santorum have each won one.

A Florida victory for Romney would restore his luster after the South Carolina loss, while a Gingrich win would solidify him as a serious challenger to the former business executive. A protracted and poisonous Republican battle, in turn, could be a boon to Obama's re-election bid.

With 19 million people, Florida presents logistical and financial challenges that may give an advantage to Romney's well-funded campaign machine.

In Florida, he leads Gingrich by 40.5 percent to 22 percent, according to polls cited by RealClearPolitics.com. Santorum, a social conservative who won the Iowa contest but has struggled to gain traction since then, is third with 15 percent.

ROMNEY FLOODS FLORIDA

Some Florida voters were delighted by Gingrich's rise.

"We are for Gingrich all the way," said Ada Rodriguez, 75, a real estate broker. "Obama is a socialist. He is the same as Castro," referring to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, the enemy of many in Florida's Cuban exile community.

Eugenio Perez, 58, a Miami property manager, said Gingrich's experience would help him in the White House.

"We live in a very complex world and we can't put a novice in such a high place, as we did in 2008," he said.

Romney has painted Gingrich as a "Washington insider" and signaled on Sunday he will step up that line of attack going forward.

The more moderate electorate in Florida may help Romney, who has failed to consolidate conservative support despite his longtime front-runner status and had hoped to wrap up the nomination after Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman bowed out last week.

Gingrich's win upended that strategy but the tax release shift and financial advantage could help Romney regain his momentum.

A political action committee formed by Romney backers, Restore Our Future, has spent $5 million in Florida for Romney since mid-December, 20 times the amount spent there so far by any other group supporting a Republican candidate, according to Federal Election Commission filings analyzed by Reuters.

Romney could get some help from Santorum, too, who is competing with Gingrich to be the conservative alternative to Romney.

"It's a choice between a moderate and a erratic conservative - someone who on a lot of the major issues has been just wrong," Santorum told ABC's "This Week" program, citing Gingrich's support for government-mandated health insurance and legislation to halt global warming.

"I think he's a very high-risk candidate."

TAX TUSSLE NOT OVER

Gingrich has see-sawed in national polls but has shown an uncanny ability to hang on, especially after a mass exodus of his staff last summer. Now he must prove to Republicans that he is the most "electable" choice despite hefty political and personal baggage.

Gingrich, who refers to Romney as a "Massachusetts moderate," said having his rival's taxes on the table would at least put an end to that part of the campaign narrative.

"As far as I'm concerned, that particular issue is now set aside and we can go on and talk about other bigger and more important things," Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

But the tax issue will almost certainly not go away.

Income inequality has become a leading topic in the presidential race, and Obama has signalled he will talk about an economy that works "for everyone, not just a wealthy few" in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a prominent Romney supporter, sought to offset any backlash that the multi-millionaire Romney may get from reactions to his wealth, largely accumulated from his career as a private equity executive.

"I think what the American people are going to see is someone who's been extraordinarily successful in his life," Christie said on NBC.

"And I don't think the American people want a failure as president. I think they like somebody who's succeeded in whatever they've tried to do and I think that's what you're going to see with Governor Romney."

(Additional reporting by Ros Krasny, David Morgan, Andrea Shalal-Esa, and Patricia Zengerle; Writing by Jeff Mason; editing by Mary Milliken and Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/ts_nm/us_usa_campaign

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Bernadette Coveney Smith: When You're Not Pronounced Man and Wife

One of the cool things about gay weddings is that there are no rules -- so when it comes to decisions like how to be pronounced at the end of the wedding ceremony, we can do whatever we want! Being pronounced "man and wife" isn't even an option -- so it's really fun to see what my clients come up with.

I was emailing with a couple recently who sent me a note on their ceremony draft. One of the grooms wrote, "Jeff and I have been together for more than 14 years. After a life of saying 'my partner' I'd love, at long last, to say, 'my spouse.'"

And so he did. Language is a funny thing. This is a big decision for gay and lesbian couples. I get asked all the time about how the officiant will declare them at the conclusion of the ceremony. I now declare you...

? legally married
? lawfully married
? partners for life
? married partners
? husbands/wives to one another
? spouses for life
? something else?

My wife Jen and I chose "legally married" -- and that felt right for me in particular because the legal bit is so important. We live in a state where our marriage is legal and I want that word to be heard loud and clear.

And once you're actually hitched, how will you refer to your spouse? Many couples I know initially cringed at "husband" or "wife". Dan Savage still calls Terry his boyfriend even though they were married in Canada. Many couples still use the term partner because it's what's comfortable and what they know -- and because some women have never, and will never ever, want to be a "wife". I have married friends who still use partner instead of "wife." "Wife" felt cringeworthy at first to me, also -- but I quickly got used to it -- and now I love it!

In contrast, I've talked to several gay men lately who already use the term husband -- and have for years -- despite not being married. For many same-sex couples, the use of "husband" and "wife" is a small political act. It's a way of saying, "We are not just partners. We are not in business together. We are in LIFE!"

How is your officiant pronouncing you at the conclusion of your wedding ceremony? And will you be using the word husband or wife to refer to your new spouse? I'd especially love to hear of any creative solutions to any of these dilemmas! Please share!

Visit my website www.14stories.com and follow me @gaywedding

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Follow Bernadette Coveney Smith on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gaywedding

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernadette-coveney-smith/post_2884_b_1219003.html

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Danny Groner: Joe Paterno Remembered for Being "Human"

"He made a mistake, but I think Joe Paterno still lived an incredibly positive life. He goes down in my book as an incredible human being,'' former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said about Joe Paterno after the former Penn State coach's death on Sunday. Amid the outpouring of emotion that's followed has been this message that Paterno was not a god and just a human being who made some mistakes. The tributes have largely focused on the good that Paterno did in his life. "Joe Paterno will be remembered in different ways," says Matt Murschel at College Insider. "For being a husband, a father, a grandfather, a coach, a mentor, an icon, a pariah, and most of all a human being." Here's what others are saying about Paterno's life, legacy, and humanity:

Philadelphia Inquirer editorial: Now that Paterno is gone, perhaps his career can be put in its proper perspective. He was human. He made mistakes. But none that are known relate to what he accomplished as a coach. In acknowledgment of that, the Big Ten Conference should restore his name to its football championship trophy.

Bernie Miklasz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "We fail to remember that they are just men, only human, imperfect despite all of their achievements and best intentions. Their statues are sturdy and permanent and designed to last forever, but the bronze can't conceal the flaws."

Bruce Arthur, National Post: "Joe Paterno was not a monster, precisely, and he was not pure. He was human, and he faltered, and it ruined what was left of his life, and what was left of a lot of other people's lives, too. Tragedy, all around."

Mark Bradley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A year ago we'd have said he did it the right way and left it at that. Today we must rewrite that line to reflect the complexity that enfolded this life the same way complexity enfolds all human life. Today we must say of Joe Paterno: 'He did it the right way -- except for the one time he didn't.'"

Bob Wojnowski, Detroit News: "Ultimately, you focus on the sum of the man, a coach like no other and a human being like most. He did plenty of good things, and also had flaws. It ended with his own haunting words -- 'I wish I had done more.'"

Deron Snyder, The Washington Times: "In the end, Paterno's biggest mistake was hanging on too long. It demonstrated everything that made him a great coach and a flawed human being: dedication and stubbornness; commitment and selfishness; perseverance and obtuseness."

Ron Chimelis, MassLive.com: "Paterno's entire life, spanning his great success and also his breathtaking fall, screams out one message. Coaches are human beings. They do great things. They also make mistakes, sometimes monumental ones."

Jon Solomon, The Birmingham News: "In the end, Joe Paterno was human, not a god. Never did Paterno appear more human than in the final 11 weeks of his 85-year-old life. Long placed on a pedestal as all that's right about college sports, Paterno's image became that of a man who failed 10 years ago when faced with his biggest moral test."

Dave D'Alessandro, Star-Ledger: "Nobody wanted it to end like this, of course -- not this soon, not with the memory of an abject human failure, of an apparent moral cowardice, still so fresh... But they also need to recognize that he became so enamored of his own mythology that he somehow failed a basic test of human decency."

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Follow Danny Groner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DannyGroner

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danny-groner/joe-paterno-death_b_1223186.html

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Sum 41 Forced To Axe UK Shows Over Frontman?s Back Injury

Sum 41 Forced To Axe UK Shows Over Frontman’s Back Injury

Rockers Sum 41 have pulled out of the Kerrang! tour with New Found Glory because of their lead singer Deryck Whibley‘s bad back. The band [...]

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/01/20/sum-41-forced-to-axe-uk-shows-over-frontmans-back-injury/

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Jobs was told anti-poaching idea "likely illegal" (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? In the summer of 2007, Apple's Steve Jobs received a note from then-Palm chief executive Ed Colligan, according to correspondence revealed in a lawsuit over employee poaching.

"Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other's employees, regardless of the individual's desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal," Colligan wrote to the now-deceased Apple chief.

The note was made public in a court filing on Thursday in a proposed class action brought by five software engineers against Apple Inc and other tech companies including Google Inc and Intel Corp.

The lawsuit accuses the companies of conspiring to keep employee compensation low by eliminating competition among them for skilled labor.

The filing has several redactions, and it is unclear whether Jobs responded to Colligan's note.

Apple declined to comment on Friday. Hewlett-Packard Co, which acquired Palm, also declined to comment.

Google, Apple, Adobe Systems, Intel, Intuit Inc and Walt Disney Co's Pixar unit settled a U.S. Justice Department probe in 2010, which bars them from agreeing to refrain from poaching each other's employees.

In announcing the settlement, the Justice Department confirmed the existence of agreements between the companies to avoid cold-calling each other's workers. However, the civil court filing on Thursday reveals details on how those mutual understandings functioned in practice.

In 2005, then-Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen forwarded an internal Adobe email to Jobs, according to the court document. In it, an Adobe human relations executive says Adobe is not to solicit any Apple employee, due to an agreement between "Bruce and Steve Jobs."

The executive said Adobe would have to "back off" one solicitation of an Apple employee that had been in the works.

Adobe did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The plaintiffs also cite correspondence from Pixar confirming a "gentleman's agreement" with Apple. Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tech companies are seeking to dismiss the civil lawsuit, saying that the excerpted communications at most refer to bilateral business arrangements and not an "overarching conspiracy."

But the plaintiffs argue that these documents demonstrate a "multi-faceted illegal agreement," and that the case should move forward.

A hearing in the lawsuit is scheduled for January 26 in a San Jose, Calif. federal court.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is In Re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, 11-cv-2509.

(Reporting By Dan Levine, editing by Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/tc_nm/us_apple_lawsuit

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A big leap toward lowering the power consumption of microprocessors

Friday, January 20, 2012

The first systematic power profiles of microprocessors could help lower the energy consumption of both small cell phones and giant data centers, report computer science professors from The University of Texas at Austin and the Australian National University.

Their results may point the way to how companies like Google, Apple, Intel and Microsoft can make software and hardware that will lower the energy costs of very small and very large devices.

"The less power cell phones draw, the longer the battery will last," says Kathryn McKinley, professor of computer science at The University of Texas at Austin. "For companies like Google and Microsoft, which run these enormous data centers, there is a big incentive to find ways to be more power efficient. More and more of the money they're spending isn't going toward buying the hardware, but toward the power the datacenters draw."

McKinley says that without detailed power profiles of how microprocessors function with different software and different chip architectures, companies are limited in terms of how well they can optimize for energy usage.

The study she conducted with Stephen M. Blackburn of The Australian National University and their graduate students is the first to systematically measure and analyze application power, performance, and energy on a wide variety of hardware.

This work was recently invited to appear as a Research Highlight in the Communications of the Association for Computer Machinery (CACM). It's also been selected as one of this year's "most significant research papers in computer architecture based on novelty and long-term impact" by the journal IEEE Micro.

"We did some measurements that no one else had done before," says McKinley. "We showed that different software, and different classes of software, have really different power usage."

McKinley says that such an analysis has become necessary as both the culture and the technologies of computing have shifted over the past decade.

Energy efficiency has become a greater priority for consumers, manufacturers and governments because the shrinking of processor technology has stopped yielding exponential gains in power and performance. The result of these shifts is that hardware and software designers have to take into account tradeoffs between performance and power in a way they did not ten years ago.

"Say you want to get an application on your phone that's GPS-based," says McKinley, "In terms of energy, the GPS is one of the most expensive functions on your phone. A bad algorithm might ping your GPS far more than is necessary for the application to function well. If the application writer could analyze the power profile, they would be motivated to write an algorithm that pings it half as often to save energy without compromising functionality."

McKinley believes that the future of software and hardware design is one in which power profiles become a consideration at every stage of the process.

Intel, for instance, has just released a chip with an exposed power meter, so that software developers can access some information about the power profiles of their products when run on that chip. McKinley expects that future generations of chips will expose even more fine-grained information about power usage.

Software developers like Microsoft (where McKinley is spending the next year, while taking a leave from the university) are already using what information they have to inform their designs. And device manufacturers are testing out different architectures for their phones or tablets that optimize for power usage.

McKinley says that even consumers may get information about how much power a given app on their smart phone is going to draw before deciding whether to install it or not.

"In the past, we optimized only for performance," she says. "If you were picking between two software algorithms, or chips, or devices, you picked the faster one. You didn't worry about how much power it was drawing from the wall socket. There are still many situations today?for example, if you are making software for stock market traders?where speed is going to be the only consideration. But there are a lot of other areas where you really want to consider the power usage."

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University of Texas at Austin: http://www.utexas.edu

Thanks to University of Texas at Austin for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116910/A_big_leap_toward_lowering_the_power_consumption_of_microprocessors

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For Lightning-Fast Drones, Add a Bird's Intuition (LiveScience.com)

How are you able to move through a dense forest or crowd, maximizing your speed while avoiding a collision? Intuition ? something not easily computer-programmed.

Lacking this trait, robots cannot navigate obstacle-riddled environments nearly as fast as living things can, nor as fast as roboticists or the military would like. As it stands, the simplest way to maximize the speed of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, is to have them go as fast as possible while still being able to stop within the length of their field of view. For example, if their sensors can detect obstacles up to 100 meters ahead, then they must be capable of decelerating to zero within 100 meters.

But living things can do much better. For this reason, roboticists and aeronautics engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have teamed up with biologists at Harvard University to model the behavior of one of nature's best forest flyers, a bird called the northern goshawk. With the reflexes of a spring trap, this raptor zips through forests at breakneck speeds, continuously adjusting its flight path to avoid collisions with trees and, through superior flight skills, catching the birds and small mammals on which it preys.

The team has calculated the theoretical speed limit the goshawk must observe in any given environment to avoid a crash. They hope this will enable them to engineer birdlike UAVs that can streak through forests and urban canyons at much faster speeds than they're currently capable of.

Emilio Frazzoli, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT who is involved in the new research, said the northern goshawk does not set its speed based on what it can immediately see. Rather, the bird gauges the density of trees in its vicinity to intuit how fast it can fly, given that forest density, such that it will always be able to find an opening through the trees. [How Birds Navigate]

Humans do the same when downhill skiing, Frazzoli pointed out. "When you go skiing off the path, you don?t ski in a way that you can always stop before the first tree you see. You ski and you see an opening, and then you trust that once you go there, you'll be able to see another opening and keep going," he said in a press release.

To determine the relationship between the goshawk's flightspeed and the density of the surrounding forest, the researchers created a mathematical equation to represent the bird's position and speed. They then worked out a model of the statistical distribution of trees in a forest, allowing the size, shape and spacing of individual trees to vary while keeping the overall density the same.

Using this model, Frazzoli and his colleagues were able to calculate the probability that a bird would collide with a tree while flying at various speeds. The team found that, for any given forest density, there exists a critical speed above which the bird is sure to eventually crash. Below that speed, the bird has an "infinite collision-free trajectory" ? it could, in theory, fly without incident forever.

To see if the theoretical speed limits they calculated actually bear out in nature, the MIT engineers are collaborating with biologists at Harvard, who are observing birds as they fly through cluttered environments. So far, preliminary comparisons between theory and experiment in the case of pigeons are "very encouraging," Frazzoli said.

If confirmed in other birds, the same algorithm could be used to program flying robots to improve their maneuverability, Frazzoli said. Given some general information about the density of obstacles in a given environment, an unmanned aerial drone could automatically determine the maximum speed below which it can safely fly.

The results up to this point will be detailed in a paper at the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation. Next, the researchers plan to see how close humans can come to the theoretical speed limits. Frazzoli and his colleagues are developing a first-person flying game to test how well people can navigate through a simulated forest at high speeds.

"What we want to do is have people play, and we'll just collect statistics," Frazzoli said. "And the question is, how close to the theoretical limit can we get?"

Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120120/sc_livescience/forlightningfastdronesaddabirdsintuition

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Blake Shelton delays tour to mourn father

Sad news for Blake Shelton.

The 35-year-old country superstar and "The Voice" mentor is grieving the Wednesday passing of his father, Dick.

PHOTOS: Looking back at the celebs we've lost

"Mr. Shelton, who was in declining health this past year, was surrounded by loved ones in Oklahoma upon his passing this evening," a rep for Shelton told Us Weekly in a statement late Wednesday.

PHOTOS: Celeb families

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As the singer mourns with his family, he has announced plans to reschedule four dates through next week on his Well Lit & Amplified tour. His stops in Bismark, N.D., Rapid City, S.D., Bozeman, Mont. and Billings, Mont. will be delayed until late March.

PHOTOS: Blake's romance with wife Miranda Lambert

"I appreciate your understanding during this difficult time and thank you for all your prayers. Your support means the world to me. I love you guys," Shelton told Us in a statement.

For more information on Shelton's makeup dates, visit his website, BlakeShelton.com.

Copyright 2012 Us Weekly

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46040519/ns/today-entertainment/

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Angel dust back in New York, drug ring busted (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Angel dust, the scourge of New York City in the 1970s, is back in the hands of drug dealers, including one Harlem ring that used an 8-year-old boy as a lookout while it operated out of neighborhood apartment houses, police said on Wednesday.

Authorities arrested 35 men in the drug ring that made $1.5 million in profit from street sales of $10 PCP bags from October 2010 to January 2012, said police commissioner Raymond Kelly at a news conference.

Two brothers, Lamont Moultrie, 41, and Bernard Moultrie, 39, were indicted on a charge of operating as a major trafficker under a recent drug kingpin law that carries a potential life sentence.

The drug bust was the result of a 15-month investigation that culminated in a search of Lamont Moultrie's apartment in Harlem on Wednesday, Kelly said.

Police found $39,000 and 2.5 gallons of liquid PCP in Hawaiian Punch bottles, he said.

"Now that is a lot of PCP," Kelly said.

The Department of Justice said PCP, also known as angel dust, was originally developed in the 1950s as an anesthetic, but was quickly discontinued because it often gave patients violent hallucinations.

It was a popular street drug sold in New York City in the 1970s and Kelly was asked if the drug bust indicates angel dust is back as the narcotic of choice.

"It sort of ebb and flowed," Kelly said. "I don't think it ever went away, but it seems it has gained favor and come back."

Prosecutor Cyrus Vance Wednesday said 15 shootings, four of them murders, have taken place around the same time and place of the PCP operation. Though none of the people arrested Wednesday have been charged with the shootings, the "simply unacceptable" violence is related to drug spikes in the neighborhood, he said.

"Neighbors told us directly that they walked in their hallways in fear as their community filled up every afternoon with people who were selling and buying drugs," Vance said at the news conference.

Drug dealing often took place in neighborhood apartment houses around the time local schools let out. Among those in the drug ring was an 8-year-old boy who kept a lookout for police and steered customers to dealers, authorities said.

"Obviously this young boy is a victim of the operations of others, but it just goes shows you the pernicious impact an organization like this can have on a community and how important it is for us to end it," Vance said.

Police inspector Lori Pollock said the boy, a nephew of one of the men arrested Wednesday, is now under care of child protective services.

(Editing By Barbara Goldberg and Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/us_nm/us_crime_angeldust_newyork

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Fact Check: Obama TV Ad Touts Record on Ethics, Clean Energy (ABC News)

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Paula Deen teams with Novo Nordisk on diabetes (AP)

Celebrity chef and Food Network star Paula Deen is teaming with drug maker Novo Nordisk to launch a program that aims to help people live with Type 2 diabetes and promote a Novo diabetes drug.

The program is called Diabetes in a New Light and offers tips on food preparation, stress management and working with doctors on a treatment plan. Recipes and tips can be found at http://www.Diabetesinanewlight.com.

Deen, a paid spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, says she was diagnosed three years ago, but kept quiet about her condition until she had advice to offer the public.

"I wanted to bring something to the table when I came forward," she said Tuesday during an appearance on NBC's "Today" show. "I've always been one to think that I bring hope."

When asked if the high-fat, high-caloric recipes she champions can lead to diabetes, she hedged.

"That is part of the puzzle," she said, but mentioned other factors: genetics, lifestyle, stress and age.

"On my show I share with you all these yummy, fattening recipes, but I tell people, `in moderation,'" she added. "I've always eaten in moderation."

Government doctors say that being overweight, over 45 and inactive increase the risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. Growth of the disease in the U.S. has been closely tied to escalating obesity rates. Roughly 23 million Americans are believed to have Type 2 diabetes, according to federal estimates.

Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes. The body either does not produce enough insulin or does not use it efficiently, allowing excess sugar, or glucose, to accumulate in the blood.

Deen has Type 2 diabetes and takes Victoza, a once-daily noninsulin injection. The website links to promotional materials for the drug.

The 64-year-old Deen, known as "the Queen of Southern cuisine," appears on Food Network.

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NBC is owned by Comcast Corp.

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Online:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_en_ot/us_novo_nordisk_paula_deen

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